Dropshipping Questions

clothes90

Hi,

I have some questions if someone can help me out. I want to set up a dropshipping service. Basically I have a friend (he worked for my dad here in ireland) in India who can get me cheap unbranded clothes and ship them to my customer. I know that If i sell those items on we say ebay or an online store, i have to offer refunds.

But i saw on another forum (UK forum) that if im selling business to business I dont have to offer refunds,once i provide the manufacters information and the onus is on the buyer to send the items back to the manufacter for refund/repair. Is this true? Seems a bit strange if it is. So I could just sell business to business to avoid this? Just curious.

Also, Im thinking of making a clothes site whereby I sell clothes. When someone buys an item from me, Ill email my contact and get him to ship it to the customer from India. (Ill explain about taxes etc). Basically, Ill be the middleman and just providing a service? Will i have to accept returns? or can i just tell the customer to ship it back to my friend in India?

Sorry Im just throwing out some ideas looking for some information. I want it to be legit and dont want to do anything shady and illegal.

Also, I'm 18. The plan is to sell on ebay and set up an online shop. Can i do this by just registering as a sole trader? Can i legally have a shop online and sell items, only being a sole trader? Would i need to put up my (parents) address. This is another issue as my parents dont want me to put up my address on the internet, incase people think the stock is in my home (They wreckin people might want to rob the cheap clothes haha)

Hope someone can help me and that makes sense, Its a bit long winded!!

Thanks

tombull82

Firstly

Why should a another business take on your problems if YOUR product is faulty???

Secondly this is not a dropshipping service, its sound more like an absolute nightmare of a system. by the time its gets from a weborder to delivery it will have pass onto 3~4 people and will take a age to be delivered.

You would be far better to bring in a small volume of these clothes and ship them yourself. Or Find a proper dropshipping service a start with them.

Yes a sole-trader can sell online but you will have to follow the law on TAX's etc no matter what you are operating as.

You dont HAVE to have an address on your site BUT it just looks very dodgy if you are a website selling a product and dont even offer a contact address. that also goes for sites with a mobile contact number. People want to feel that they can contact YOU if something goes wrong with the whole transaction. And with the delivery time that would be involved in your ordering system above THEY WILL WANT TO CONTACT YOU.

You can pay for a virtual office either, but at a cost to your business.

clothes90 wrote: »

Hi,

I have some questions if someone can help me out. I want to set up a dropshipping service. Basically I have a friend (he worked for my dad here in ireland) in India who can get me cheap unbranded clothes and ship them to my customer. I know that If i sell those items on we say ebay or an online store, i have to offer refunds.

But i saw on another forum (UK forum) that if im selling business to business I dont have to offer refunds,once i provide the manufacters information and the onus is on the buyer to send the items back to the manufacter for refund/repair. Is this true? Seems a bit strange if it is. So I could just sell business to business to avoid this? Just curious.

Also, Im thinking of making a clothes site whereby I sell clothes. When someone buys an item from me, Ill email my contact and get him to ship it to the customer from India. (Ill explain about taxes etc). Basically, Ill be the middleman and just providing a service? Will i have to accept returns? or can i just tell the customer to ship it back to my friend in India?

Sorry Im just throwing out some ideas looking for some information. I want it to be legit and dont want to do anything shady and illegal.

Also, I'm 18. The plan is to sell on ebay and set up an online shop. Can i do this by just registering as a sole trader? Can i legally have a shop online and sell items, only being a sole trader? Would i need to put up my (parents) address. This is another issue as my parents dont want me to put up my address on the internet, incase people think the stock is in my home (They wreckin people might want to rob the cheap clothes haha)

Hope someone can help me and that makes sense, Its a bit long winded!!

Thanks

J_Wholesale

clothes90 wrote: »

Hi,
But i saw on another forum (UK forum) that if im selling business to business I dont have to offer refunds...

The Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to business to business transactions. Whatever terms and conditions are present on your website when the customer places the order, apply. However, if goods are faulty when they arrive, you would still be expected to refund/exchange.

The main difference with b2b transactions is that without the DSR, your customers cannot 'change their mind' and return the items for a refund if they are undamaged. End consumers (b2c) can do this within 30 days, regardless of whether the goods are damaged or not.

clothes90

tombull82 wrote: »

Firstly

Why should a another business take on your problems if YOUR product is faulty???

Secondly this is not a dropshipping service, its sound more like an absolute nightmare of a system. by the time its gets from a weborder to delivery it will have pass onto 3~4 people and will take a age to be delivered.
.

Thanks for the info. Ye no like i said im just throwing out ideas and will have to sit down and figure out pros/cons if i decide to do it.

The above quote, yes if someone buys from me it should be my problem. But, if im acting like the middleman (and i dont make the products), shouldnt the customer contact the manufacter for a replacement? If i sent wrong item, id refund and send back myself.

But im just afraid with clothes, if someone buys a 30inch waist and its a loose 30inch (ya know the way sizes sometimes vary) I dont want people sending back just cause they dont like the fit. But at same time i dont want to be shady about it either.

The distance isnt as issue. The clothes will be shipped directly to customer, or else me and then to customer. Either way it will only be a few days as its coming straight from factory, not another website.

I guess like Tom said its a mess of a system ;P

Pixelcraft

With clothes, you'll have to take them back I think it's the only option.

With regards to returns, you're legally obligated to deal with a return if you sell an item, and not the manufacturer, it's up to the consumer who they deal with.

tombull82

just wondering. Are you going to give information about the origin of the items? Vat and tax which the customer may be hit for at the front door? You will need to think about this. :-)

clothes90

Yes I was going to state the the items were coming from outside the EU so they we need to pay customs and VAT. Course Id tell them that haha. I have a link from citizens information so was going to have that on it too.

I think Im just going to ship the items to me though for now and that way I'll pay the Duty and customs. They when i have the item ill list it on ebay. The dropshipping seems a bit hit and miss.Thanks

bbam

I researched dropshipping and e-bay for a while and came to a few conclusions...

Dropshipping as far as I could assertain was another way for a wholesaler to get products onto the market without doing any marketing/work.

Most if not all of these dropshippers are already selling to the public so you would have to compeete with them. (some admitt it and some don't)

E-bay - lots of products are being sold at cost price by dropshipe's to try and compete with the wholesalers already selling there. When you take the charges into account it isn't profitable

If you follow the rules and list the correct address of the product lots of people will not buy them.

Own web-site, very hard to build credability. Why wouldn't I go onto e-bay and buy from a wholesaler with 10,000 positive feedbacks rather than buy from a website which was registered two months ago?

Postal charges from Ireland to anywhere are crazy.

Irish Cuatoms will hold the products until the duty is paid for, you may slip some past them but is't likely not and if you do you're breaking the law.

E-bay is a shoppers dream, goods at cost or near cost price, transparent feedback and a huge selection.

I'd guess you would make more if you import a few boxes of clothes and sell them for cash at markets.

delllat

ebays markup is so massive u will struggle to make a profit there

u think you are making ,money until u get your calculater out and realise between ebay and paypal ur losing near 20%

ur competing with asians who have almost zero operating costs and ridiculously low postage prices and the buying power to wipe you out completely

i recently bought a bicycle computer (one of those things that tells u how fast ur going and miles covered etc) for 0.99p with free shipping from hongkong

it works perfect BTW and arrived in about a week

i have no idea how he can make a profit after listing fees ,final value fees ,paypal fees and then postage to the other side of the world

the conclusion i came to was he must be making a loss in order to build feedback or else hes got some other plans for this account

the numbers just dont add up ,even he was getting these computers for free the numbers still dont add up when you combine all the other charges